Man who championed T-ball dies at 93

Valerie J. Nelson, Los Angeles Times

Published
4:00 am PST, Friday, March 6, 2009

In a photo provided by Albion, Mich., historian Frank Passic, Jerry Sacharski, left, gives instructions to 5-year-old Craig LeClair in 1958. The Michigan man known for helping to popularize T-ball as an organized youth sport has died. The J. Kevin Tidd Funeral Home in Albion says Sacharski, 93, died Friday, Feb. 27, 2009, at his home in Albion. The game's exact origin is unclear but behind Sacharski, Albion in 1956 became one of the nation's first communities in which T-ball was played as an organized sport. (AP Photo/Frank Passic via Battle Creek Enquirer) ** NO SALES ** less

In a photo provided by Albion, Mich., historian Frank Passic, Jerry Sacharski, left, gives instructions to 5-year-old Craig LeClair in 1958. The Michigan man known for helping to popularize T-ball as an ... more

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In a photo provided by Albion, Mich., historian Frank Passic, Jerry Sacharski, left, gives instructions to 5-year-old Craig LeClair in 1958. The Michigan man known for helping to popularize T-ball as an organized youth sport has died. The J. Kevin Tidd Funeral Home in Albion says Sacharski, 93, died Friday, Feb. 27, 2009, at his home in Albion. The game's exact origin is unclear but behind Sacharski, Albion in 1956 became one of the nation's first communities in which T-ball was played as an organized sport. (AP Photo/Frank Passic via Battle Creek Enquirer) ** NO SALES ** less

In a photo provided by Albion, Mich., historian Frank Passic, Jerry Sacharski, left, gives instructions to 5-year-old Craig LeClair in 1958. The Michigan man known for helping to popularize T-ball as an ... more

Photo: AP

Man who championed T-ball dies at 93

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Jerry Sacharski, a recreation league director who pioneered T-ball as an organized youth sport in the 1950s because he couldn't bear to turn away young children who clamored to play baseball, has died. He was 93.

Mr. Sacharski, who was a retired high school teacher, died Feb. 28 of natural causes at his home in Albion, Mich., said a spokeswoman for the J. Kevin Tidd Funeral Home.

"We had all these little guys coming out for summer baseball five years ago," Mr. Sacharski told United Press International in 1960, "and just couldn't send them home."

To help younger children learn the fundamentals, he removed one of the sport's more difficult aspects - pitching and hitting the ball - and devised rules that allowed a batter to hit the ball off an adjustable tee on home plate.

After fashioning his first batting tee out of metal piping, pieces of rubber and part of a garden hose, Mr. Sacharski invited youngsters between ages 6 and 8 to come out for a suddenly pitchless pastime.

On June 25, 1956, what Mr. Sacharski initially called "pee-wee baseball" was introduced in a league game at a park in Albion, about 100 miles west of Detroit.

"You won't find an earlier date for a tee being used in a game," said Frank Passic, an Albion historian.

Mr. Sacharski resisted being called the inventor of the game and would only allow that he founded what "may have been the first organized tee-ball league."

Several men did claim to be the father of the game, including a Florida minister who trademarked the phrase "tee-ball" and said he invented it in 1960. In Los Angeles, T-ball was played as early as 1958, the Los Angeles Times reported in 1963, and at least two men have been credited with inventing it in Southern California.

It seems the simplified game first played by the little boys of summer has something in common with its big brother.

"T-ball, of course, is just like baseball - nobody knows who invented it first," said Tim Wiles, director of research at the National Baseball Hall of Fame & Museum.

Mr. Sacharski wasn't interested in receiving credit for creating T-ball or marketing it but "was there to teach the kids," said Passic, a member of a 1960 Albion pee-wee team called Johnny Ringo, named for a TV western.

More than 2 million children play T-ball across the country today, according to the T-Ball USA Association.

Jerome Sacharzewski was born Feb. 6, 1916, in West Allis, Wis., to Michael and Martha Sacharzewski. He shortened his name to Sacharski so that it would fit on a baseball score card, Passic said.

At Oshkosh State Teacher's College, Mr. Sacharski met his future wife, Etola Lacy, and they married in 1941.

He served in the Army during World War II and moved to Albion in 1942.